We are all Creative Creatures and Beings!

Fri, 28th September, 2018 from 9:00 AM, in Awliscombe

We are all Creative Creatures and Beings!

explore how your creativity shows up and is experienced by others

Mark Simmonds

Friday 28^th September 2018

Creative Beings Studio, The Old Rectory, Awliscombe, Devon EX14 3PJ

 

 

It is a well-known story – a teacher walks into a classroom of primary school children and asks; “who is an artist, who is creative?” and almost every hand in the class goes up. Forward a few years and walk into a workshop full of adults and ask the same question and perhaps an apologetic hand will hang mid-air – as Pablo Picasso said:

“Every child is an artist – the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”

Whether it is a result of our education system that rewards the measurable more than the exploratory, or our dominant world view of work (particularly in the West) as a mechanistic and Newtonian activity, there is no doubt that for many of us, finding space to be creative / to lose ourselves / to be in flow can feel like a challenge.

How many times in workshops have I been guided by a well-meaning HR Director – “yes, of course it’s important that we check in fully and we should follow important threads of conversation, BUT we must not allow the participants to get bored (or have too much fun or waste any time or allow any space for ambiguity!)

I am delighted that Mark Simmonds, co-founder of Creative Creatures will join us to lead a session that explores how all of us use our creativity in different ways. It is the mixture of differing creative approaches that delivers creativity in projects that goes beyond the individual. In this workshop, we intend to come away with:

• Greater self-understanding of our own creativity and how we like to engage creatively
• Awareness of what we experience when we are in ‘creative mode’ and how that is useful to others
• A useful process and understanding of a ‘tool’ to use with groups and teams

In advance of the event, Mark will be sending out a short on-line questionnaire to complete in advance. On the day itself, he will share back the results with each of us so that we can discover our own unique creative profile!

For this event, we plan to run this Sadler Heath in our new Creative Beings Studio in Awliscombe, which is just 15 mins from Escot House. We will be hosting it there to see how well the space could work for us going forward. For this creative experiment, we will be charging a reduced fee of £40 pp (which will be invoiced and paid in the usual way through Sadler Heath). If the space doesn’t work for us, we will be returning to Escot House (as I know many of us are hugely attached to this space!).

Mark Simmonds: has worked as a management trainer/facilitator for most of his career, focusing on creativity and innovation. He has worked with many companies across the world, including Unilever, HSBC, Tesco, GlaxoSmithKline, Philips and Pernod Ricard. In 2008, he set up Creative Creatures with Hanne Kristiansen, who is based in Barcelona, and they have made it their mission to help every individual work out not if but HOW they are creative. We are all Creative Beings! Mark is married to Mel (who will also be joining us in September) and they have three wonderful grown up children (Will, Emily and Jack) and a mad cat called Maisie!

Sue Holland:  is a retreat leader, change agent, executive coach and facilitator. She works both 1:1 with leaders and with groups to provide challenge, insight and support in the pursuit of personal and business results. She has trained with the Academy of Executive Coaching and the London Gestalt Institute. In previous roles she was a scientific Botanist nerd and then a leader within a large multinational organization. She now spends her time working with organizations, running leadership retreats, working with a charity that supports people with dementia and being a home bird.